Research

Introduction In this recent article I discussed the alarming incidence of plagiarism by students, particularly copy/pasting work from online sources directly into their research work, often re-arranging some text so that it appeared to be in their own words. If students are properly taught basic skills in how to gather and organise their research, then they can build on…

“Houston, we have a problem!” At the start of 2013 I joined a new secondary (high) school where I taught two junior Social Studies classes. The students for both courses were required to complete three internally assessed research assignments over the year. There was some scope for teachers to modify aspects of the assessments, so…

Introduction When improving student literacy we tend to focus on reading and writing skills. Apart from the core numeracy skills, research and critical thinking skills are also spoken of as highly valued. But, what about the visual literacy skills – the ability to see, understand and think, create and to communicate graphically? The Theory of…

Well it has been a long time since I have posted on this blog, but that is not to say that I have not been busy and moving ahead with using a range of ICT’s in my role as Director of E-Learning at Palmerston North Boys’ High. Things have been moving very quickly for the school…

Last year my Year 9 History class was about to embark on their task of researching Old Boys from their school who fought in the First World War. The dual purpose of the topic was for these new entrants to learn about the history of their school, their country at the time and the battle…

In my last year at Wellington College (2011) I had the pleasure of teaching a Year 9 History class and, as the school’s eLearning Director, was given plenty of freedom to explore diffent ways that eLearning tools could enhance and make learning history more relevant for the students. After only 4 weeks of regular teaching the new…

Well its been 6 weeks since my last posting. I have been incredibly busy but have continued to use Google Docs for Collaborative work with my students. Here is another way that I have used Google Docs in the last few weeks. Year 9 (13-14 Year Old) Research and Presentation – Ancient Rome I decided…

Well my year long elearning fellowship has finally come to an end and I will be back into regular teaching alongside my role as eLearning Director at Wellington College starting next year. This year has seen me test and research a model of learning which I had used previously with a Year 11 History class.…